Dungeon Raider System

Now that they had a reassurance that their friends were doing fine, at least until a couple weeks ago, the sense of urgency that enshrouded Uriel was finally lifted from his shoulders. It had been a long time since they weren't pressed by time and also, a long while since they slept in a cozy bed which is precisely why they immediately assumed they would be able to sleep late, but Uriel had other plans in mind.

"Wake up already, we're going to be late." Uriel said at the same time he kicked Luna's bed, though the one to react was Nika who waited until Luna fell asleep to sneak into her bed.

"Just five more minutes." Nika turned around and hugged Luna whose snore could have been mistaken by a bear's roar.

"You leave me with no choice." Sighed Uriel and then pulled on the bed sheets, causing Luna to fall off the bed as she was clinging to the sheets like the bed hog she was.

"Kill- you." Luna muttered under her breath.

"You can try," Uriel smirked. "but that will leave you without breakfast." Mentioning breakfast was enough to get Luna's attention, but she refused to let go of the bed covers and scooted around the floor wrapped in the sheets like a caterpillar. Nika, instead, remained laying in bed with her arms crossed and her brows furrowed.

"After all we've been through, you should be more understanding of a woman's feelings. You're hurting us when you disregard our needs and wants for selfish reasons."

"It's not like I don't understand how you feel, I just can't care any less. You two have caused me way more trouble than you're worth. The least you can do is get up when I ask you to." Uriel grunted and exited the room.

Breakfast was already on the table, but contrary to Luna's expectations it wasn't the hotel's fancy cuisine but food Uriel got from the nearest Starborgs, not that it bothered her and she gobbled up most of the cold donuts leaving Nika little more than crumbs.

Uriel waking up early was already a sign that he was excited, but him asking them every two minutes if they were ready let the girls know it had to be something really important and they stopped complaining. Two minutes later they showed up wearing their underarmor and clothes apt for the wilderness. Luna had her orichalcum claws on and Nika readied the Peacemaker on her holster.

"Guys, we're going to a museum, not to war." Uriel facepalmed.

"A museum!? Why the heck would we want to visit a museum, that's your thing." Nika blurted out.

"This is the first time I can visit a functioning museum. If you spoil this for me, I won't just fire you, I'll resign." Uriel glared at Nika, then exited the hotel and before he reached the first floor both huntresses were already waiting for him outside wearing different clothes. This was made possible only thanks to Luna's agility and Nika's shadow blink, which they rarely used out of combat.

"We're sorry." Nika bowed her head slightly, a gesture Luna mimicked poorly but Uriel thouoght it was the intention what counted.

Uriel had taken mental note of the location of three different museums and the reason he got up so early was that he wanted to visit them all in the same day. Needless to say, his emotions were so up in the roof he barely batted an eye all night, yet didn't feel tired in the slightest.

"Two adults and a kid." Said the clerk on the reception of the museum, to which Uriel nodded. Luna wanted to object and state she was an adult like usual, but Nika rushed up to forcefully shut her mouth close and point her at the pricing on the board. Each adult paid 15k each and children only half.

"Thank you for that." Uriel said after entering the building to which Nika replied with a smile and held his right hand. Not wanting to be less, went the other way to hold Uriel's left hand and they walked side by side as they entered the first exhibition.

"I don't know what I was expecting, but this isn't it." Said Nika the moment she noticed people inside dressed in classy outfits, except for the heavily armed guards that stood near each artifact to keep it safe from robbers.

"Seriously? Do you think the average slum dweller would be able to pay the equivalent to an incursion ticket to enter a museum?" Uriel scoffed, then turned his attention to the artifacts.

The museum looked exactly how Uriel expected one to look and although the artifacts weren't particularly eye catching he basked in the sight of old outdated tools that wouldn't serve a purpose in their society.

"This marked a milestone in the agrarian industry." Uriel pointed at an iron plow that looked ordinary at a first glance, a bit annoyed to see that there was no explanatory placard or sign beneath the item.

"Really? You can tell its ability just by seeing it?" Nika asked in a gasp.

"Of course not, it doesn't have an ability. It's just an iron tool developed to plow the soil. It may not look like much, but by making farmers lives easier this little tool changed history." Uriel explained, then a tall woman wearing a red night dress with a low cut in the back and a fashionable hair style butted in.

"Actually, it does have an ability. If you were to channel a small amount of flux into it then strike the ground, it would cause a long impact making it effective as both a plowing tool or a medium ranged weapon." The woman said.

"Is it the case with all the other items in this museum?" Uriel lifted his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Well, of course. Why else would someone bother to keep a museum going?" The woman chuckled.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because these items are an important part of the civilization that birthed us?" Uriel sarcastically remarked.

"Watch your mouth, you filthy dog!" A female hunter that escorted the woman scolded.

"How dare you treat our lovely customers like this!?" The woman turned to slap the huntress, causing no damage whatsoever, apart from the embarrassment that is.

"But Miss Alba, look at them. They're scum." The huntress snickered.

"Do I need to repeat myself? You cannot judge a book for its cover, they might not know what a museum is, but they are dressed in rich natural fibers that can't be produced anymore. And those beautiful leather gloves are actually artifacts worth a dozen times that plow. Now apologize on your knees or consider yourself blacklisted." Alba looked at the woman with such disgust it may have seemed like she hated her, when she was actually her personal bodyguard and the person she trusted more in the world.

The huntress looked at Uriel as though expecting him to say the gentleman thing, something along the lines of 'it's not necessary', but instead found a cold stare and a smug that somehow felt more humiliating than the slap she just received.

"I beg to differ, Miss Alba. The value of a museum doesn't relate to the power of their artifacts, but the story behind them. If I may take a closer look at the plow I would be able to tell you more about it. I can't assure you that you will make anything out of it, but you might find it interesting." Uriel said with a hint of malice in his eyes as he paid close attention to the woman's reaction.

"I'm sorry, but the security protocol forbids me from taking out an item unless it's for selling." Alba spoke apologetically.

"Then how is this place different to a grocery shop?" Uriel snarled loud enough for everyone in the exhibition to notice.

"The prices are much different." Alba let out in a chuckle that intended to be charming, but Uriel deemed it offensive.

"Let's go, there's nothing of value here." Uriel never thought he would ever find himself fighting the urge to spit in the ground as it was something considered impolite in every culture he ever studied, but the polite thing was the least of his considerations in a place as sacrilegious as the one he was standing.

Disappointed and distraught in equal measure, Uriel walked the streets of Madrid without paying any heed to Nika's attempts to appease him or the buzzing streets.

"Come on, didn't you say it was your first time in a museum? At least you can scratch that off your bucket list." Nika said soothingly.

"An aberration, a disgusting circus! That is what that was, not a museum!" Uriel felt angrier by the second.

"Are you upset?" Luna tilted her head in confusion.

"Am I upset? I'm fucking raging!"

"I don't get it." Luna shook her inexpressive face.

"Of course you don't, you never get how people feel." Uriel growled.

"No, I do get how you must be feeling or at least I like to think I do. But just because you visited one museum and didn't like it, that doesn't mean every museum in the world has to be like that. It's only fair to assume there must be at least one proper museum somewhere in the world, you just need to be patient." Luna explained her reasoning. It was of little comfort, but at the same time it was eye opening.

"Let's go hunt something, I bet you'll feel better after that." Nika nudged on Uriel's ribs, unraveling his knitted eyebrows.

Uriel's first visit to the museum wasn't what he wished from the time he was a child, but there was one small detail that made it all better.

'At least I'm not alone.'